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Q4 GDP up 0.4% in Final Revision

In its third and final estimate for Q4 2012, the Commerce Department announced [link opens a PDF] today that real GDP growth clocked in at an annual growth rate of 0.4%.

This latest estimate is 0.3 percentage points above the Department's second estimate of 0.1%, but fell short of analysts' 0.6% expectations.

According to the government's press release, this newest revision "has not changed the general picture of the economy" despite upticks in personal spending (+1.8%) and residential/nonresidential fixed investment (+17.6% and +13.2%, respectively).

The main Q4 drags on economic growth were private inventory investment, federal government spending (-14.8%), exports (-2.8%), and state/local government spending (-1.5%).

Although Q4's rate fell below Q3's 3.1% growth, real GDP growth for 2012 overall clocked in at 2.2%, compared with 1.8% in 2011. Looking ahead, the Federal Reserve released new GDP estimates last week that put GDP growth between 2.3% and 2.8% for 2013.

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